Practice has reward
Emmaus girls edge Allentown Central Catholic; Central boys rout East Stroudsburg South
Coach (Sarah Oswald) and player (Madison Woodward) shared a quick conversation at Emmaus’ practice on Saturday.
It went something like ...
Coach: “You ready to take our PKs [penalty kicks] if we need you.”
Player: “I’m really nervous about it. I haven’t taken one in a while.”
Coach: “You’re going to be our choice. We’re going to get you ready.”
Woodward was ready, willing and able in the Green Hornets’ Eastern Pennsylvania Conference quarterfinal on Monday afternoon at Iron Lakes.
The junior standout scored twice on PKs in the final 12 minutes and the fifth-seeded Green Hornets edged No. 4 Central Catholic, 2-1, in a thriller.
Oswald’s squad improved to 11-6 overall and advanced into Wednesday’s semifinals against either top-seeded Parkland or No. 8 Stroudsburg at a site and time to be determined.
Woodward’s first conversion, the tying tally, came with 11:35 left after officials whistled Central Catholic for a hand ball in the box. Her second PK came with 84 seconds remaining after Kam Watkins worked around several Vikings’ defenders and drew a foul in the box.
“I was very nervous,” said Woodward, one of the EPC’s top all-around players. “I really don’t decide until I’m approaching to take it [where I’m placing it], it’s kind of an in-the-moment thing. I just didn’t want to kick the second ball to the same place because she’d be expecting it.”
Oswald, a former star player at Emmaus, thought practicing PKs this past weekend might be a smart idea. Emmaus and Central Catholic split a pair of one-goal games during the conference’s regular season.
“It was the first time all season that we really needed to rely on anyone to take a critical PK,” Oswald said.
Woodward, whose goals were her eighth and ninth of the season, credited her senior teammate for creating the Green Hornets’ second PK opportunity.
“That was really good by Kam,” Woodward said. “She went right past three defenders and got clipped. That was her goal right there.”
The contest was extremely competitive and evenly played throughout.
Coach Rob Spatzer’s Vikings, who will enter the District 11 Class 2A tournament with an 11-3-3 record, put the first goal on the scoreboard.
Sophomore forward Abbey Kofroth placed a soft shot past Emmaus’ goalkeeper and into the lower-left corner of the net.
Central Catholic led 1-0 with 26:07. Typically, that’d be enough offense for the Vikings.
“We felt really good going up a goal. We don’t concede many goals,” Spatzer said. “So when we get a lead, we feel pretty good about it.
“It’s always a very competitive game with Emmaus. It’s very evenly played most of the time. I really hate for games like this one to be decided by penalties but that’s the way it went down today.”
Viking boys victorious
Central Catholic, the second seed in the EPC boys tournament, controlled the action from start to finish and completed a 6-0 rout of seventh-seeded East Stroudsburg South in the second game of a doubleheader at Iron Lakes.
Junior Maksym Komperda scored three goals for the Vikings, who will play No. 3 Freedom in Wednesday’s semifinals at a site and time to be determined.
Seniors Nathan Harris and
Brandon Quinn and junior Pearce Wagner also scored goals for Central Catholic.
“I told the boys, I think overall, that was one of our best performances,” said Vikings coach Taylor Holko, whose squad improved to 14-2-2. “We had been focusing on playing quickly, switching the point of attack. I feel like we did that really well. It was a tough game against an athletic, good opponent.”
The coach also praised the offensive outburst by Komperda, one of the conference’s top goal-scorers.
“I love Maksym,” Holko said. “He’s such a smart player and he hitstheballsoferociously.Those are the reasons why he has 24 goals for the season.”
East Stroudsburg South, which will enter the District 11 Class 3A tournament at 12-6-1 overall, again played without standout Christian Gilmore, who missed his fourth consecutive game with an injury.
Central Catholic edged East Stroudsburg South 2-1 on Sept. 17.
Now, the Vikings play another opponent they beat earlier this season. Central prevailed over Freedom 3-1 on Sept. 13.